The present invention relates to a fancy or decorative article for use as a greeting gift such as a greeting card having on its front surface a printed impression of at least one of pictures, designs or other visible representations.
In the art of fancy or ornamental gifts or souvenirs in the form of a greeting card, there have been known various articles made of cardboard, plastics, ceramics, etc. These articles have a printed picture on its front surface, and a writing area on its back surface for enabling the sender to write words of friendliness, courtesy, respect, and other salutations as a message to the receiver.
Greeting cards in the form of a cardboard or thick sheet of paper material are widely spread and consequently have a reduced value of rarity as evaluated in the level of surprise or excitement of the receiver.
A greeting card made from a sheet of ceramic or porcelain is expensive due to complicated process of manufacture including preparation of decalcomania paper or film, and baking of a shaped ceramic or porcelain material with a decalcomania paper attached. The cost of manufacture of such ceramic or porcelain article is increased particularly when the picture or design to be transferred to the article uses a considerable number of colors. For example, if a design to be transferred uses ten distinct colors, then ten printing plates are needed to print a ten-color decalcomania pattern on substrate paper or film, each printing plate corresponding to each of the ten colors. These plural color plates permit a printing of the final ten-color decalcomania paper through superposition of ten images of the respective color plates. Thus, the decalcomania process takes a high plate-making cost. Further, the ceramic or porcelain article is limited in color reproduction; the decalcomania process is not suitable for printing tones or shades, i.e., a full-color, continuous-tone effect by use of primary colors is not obtained, unlike an ordinary lithographic printing wherein any color is reproduced by use of only four plates, magenda, cyan, yellow and black. The complexity of image transfer to the ceramic or porcelain article requires a long period of manufacture and delivery. Further, such material is fragile and heavy, and therefore the product need to be shipped in a heavy package or container using a shock absorbing material, and consequently takes a comparatively high shipping cost (postage).
A greeting card made of a plastic material provides a lower degree of surprise or excitement of the receiver than a ceramic- or porcelain-made greeting card, and is also limited in color reproduction because the printing of a picture or design is usually effected by means of a screened photo print instead of a continuous-tone print. Further, a plastic sheet tends to curl and lose its commercial value.